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This year the penguins arrived early. Our remote camera recorded the first ones Oct 21, a full week earlier than last year. The sea ice edge is 50 miles away so their walk is much further than last season, but this winter there was less pack ice, so when it was time to move towards the colony they were much closer to start. It's all about the winds, and you can read more about it on this web site.

On Nov 2 we saw males with nests ready for females and today (Nov 5) we saw the first egg of the season. Now that the eggs are being laid, we will expect the Skuas to return in full numbers, too. It takes about 30-35 days for the eggs to hatch so we will start looking for chicks in early Dec.

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